Failed to initialize 3D audio

[General Appo]

Hi.
Last week when I attempted to start EB I got the message "Failed to initialize 3D audio". I did not have time to look into it right then, and since then I have successfully been playing EB on a different computer.
Now however I have returned to the same computer, and I keep getting this message that prevents me from playing my beloved game.
I have never experience any prior problems with EB on this computer, nor have I recently installed or re-installed EB, nor made any sort of changes to my audio system, driver, speakers or anything at all that could possibly have any effect on the initialization of the 3D audio.
I have searched the forums for an answer, and found several threads with people asking roughly the same question, however no clear answer was ever given in any of these threads and I have tried all that was suggested, including checking my 3D system, sound management, cleaning the disk and laser reader, rebooting, just about everything, but it still does not work.
Please help me, I´m going crazy without EB.

[Olaf The Great]

What would 3D audio look like?

[bovi]

Have you checked whether you're missing mss32.dll? It's been reported about 10-20 times by others, so you might want to check. If it's missing, you can get it from the EB FTP.

3D audio means surround, I presume.

[General Appo]

If you read my post you´ll see that I have already checked several threads with people having the same problem, but none of these threads mentioned a solution that has worked for me.
After reading those threads it seems to me that if you miss the mss32.dll you´ll get a message about it, but I have not. Besides, I have played EB for quite some times without any problems, and did not make any changes to the game nor computer before I encountered this problem. Oh well, I´m re-installing now, hope that works, though I don´t see how it will.
But I´ll search for the mss32.dll anyway, just to be sure.

[bovi]

You have of course tried to reboot your computer?

[General Appo]

*sigh* Once again, if you had read my initial post then you would have seen that yes, I have tried to reboot my computer.

[bovi]

I do see that you haven't mentioned whether you use Vista though. Do you, and if so, have you installed under Program Files? It's known to corrupt EB whenever it's least convenient...

Have you run the validation tool? What does it say?

At the risk of asking yet another question that you mean you've answered fully, have you installed Nero or any other program?

[General Appo]

No, I am not using the game destroying software called Vista.
Yes, I have Nero installed, but I had it installed long before EB, and I played many happy hours of EB with it.

Just finished searching for mss32.dll, and man do I have many of those files.
26 to be exact, but non for EB or RTW. I don´t what the EB FTP is though, don´t think I´ve ever heard it before, so any help there would be appreciated.

Edit: Wrong by me, I do have a mss32.dll file, it had just somehow managed to get lost in the Recruitment Viewer map when I made backups for my re-installation, but I assume it should be in the main RTW folder?

[bovi]

It's supposed to be directly in the RTW folder. Here it is.

[General Appo]

YEEEEEESSS!!!! It works!!!! I love you Bovi!!!
Strangely enough, instead of playing EB I have spent the last 15 minutes doing some crazy happiness dance to The Clash´s Rudie Can´t Fail. Shame on you for making me dance for the first time in months.

[bovi]

Indeed! You're supposed to dance with a partner, or you headbang!

Anyway, happy to help .

[General Appo]

Hehe, good vids. But I thought the Clash was more pogoing. Which I guess require a partner, or even better, a few thousand drunk partners. Anyway, can´t talk, got to play.

[Tophat1812]

It's supposed to be directly in the RTW folder. Here it is.

I have the same error msg,yet I had mss32.dll already in the RTW folder. I over-wrote it with the new mss32.dll file anyway. No good.....though I'm going to re-boot my computer again. I have already done a system restore to yesterday when all was well with the world and my computer!


How I got into this mess,readers-digest version:

Uninstalled RTW,EB1.0 and Barbarian invasion for a nice full reinstall of everything and EB1.1.............first had trouble uninstalling then when I had finally uninstalled I put disc#1 in and I got no install option!!! Only Play Rome....nothing happened when clicked on. Also I had an Uninstall option,nothing happened when i clicked on that either.

I now can't play the game at all I just get the "Failed to initialize 3D audio.

Help............... Please.

[bovi]

See my sig for how to get RTW uninstalled in order to install it again.

Create a new help thread if you're still having problems after reinstalling.